[PLUG-TALK] How long to hack a toaster?

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Sat Nov 5 21:51:08 UTC 2016


On Wed, Nov 02, 2016 at 07:28:18PM -0700, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> If this is a transcription of a spoken report, I will cut the author some
> slack.  

Yes.

On the subject of the transcript, perhaps someone can
tell me why we don't invest resources to track down the
individuals who source these threats, investigate them
carefully, prosecute them, then sell their body organs
to deserving people who need them?

A little less incandescently, we cannot armor our
society against all threats.  I do not need to walk
around in a Kevlar vest; people firing bullets into
crowds (and there are a very rare few) are stopped.
We have procedures for that; imperfect but tolerably
effective.  We identify the shooters and jail them.

I do not know how difficult it would be to design systems
that preserve privacy while identifying mass network
threats; it may require new protocols, and defense in
depth.  But we churn through hardware rapidly; we can
install new hardware designed with security in mind,
and we can devote resources to testing it, and
penalizing manufacturers of hardware that doesn't
meet the qualifications claimed.  

I assume that the threat sources are (1) sociopaths,
and (2) national agencies run by sociopaths (including
ours).  With the right hardware, and teams tasked to 
hunt them down, they should be findable and punishable.

My guess is that most of the threat is option (2), and 
that we have way too many sociopaths with high positions
in our own government to take action.  This is a political
and societal, not a technical, problem.

Anyone remember Watergate?  That was a physical op - and
many perpetrators went to jail, and a president resigned.
Why don't we do that now, with so much more at stake?

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com
-----
Don't waste your vote in 2016!  Give it to the Republicans
and Democrats, and they will gladly waste it for you!



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